March 30, 2012

For decades, Jim Crow laws made this crime statutory. They codified the spaces into which black bodies could not pass without encountering legal punishment. They made public blackness a punishable offense. The 1964 Civil Rights Act removed the legal barriers but not the social sanctions and potentially violent consequences of this “crime.” George Zimmerman’s slaying of Trayvon Martin — and the subsequent campaign to smear Martin — is the latest and most jarring reminder that it is often impossible for a black body to be innocent.

This is the left-wing presentation of the case. All I want to talk about here is the photograph The Nation has used to illustrate this item. We see a 3-year-old child, a boy who happens to be black. He's been dressed in a black hoodie — the item of clothing Martin was wearing when he died — and given a sign to hold. The sign has a picture of a bag of Skittles — the candy the 17-year-old Martin had in his possession when he was shot — and the words Justice 4 Trayvon Martin. The child's eyes are downcast. He looks terribly sad.

But he can't possibly be sad about racism in American, injustice, or the death of Trayvon Martin. He's 3 years old!

He's probably sad because he's been dragged to a protest and made to stand around, holding a sign, at knee level to a lot of adults who are angry about something he can't understand. Who knows the ways in which a 3-year-old absorbs the emotions of the adults who surround him? Does he even know he's black, and if he does, does that have meaning for him? What meaning is he learning — that he's guilty of being black?

"Zimmerman’s neighbor Frank Taaffe suggested “if he [Trayvon] had just answered him [Zimmerman] in an appropriate manner, ‘I’m just here visiting. My mother’s house is around the corner,’ and be upfront and truthful, there wouldn’t be any problem.” ... Conservative commentators and websites piled on, pointing to Trayvon’s gold teeth and his tattoos. These statements suggest that the unarmed teenager was culpable in the encounter that led to his death, not because of any aggressive or illegal act but because he was not following the appropriate protocol for being black in public."

-- Gerlado is stupid, so let's ignore him. But, yeah. Martin could have responded reasonably instead of attacking. He may have, if he did respond reasonably and Zimmerman turns out to be the aggressor, we might have a real issue on our hands.

But... why does the author of this piece ignore the allegations that Martin struck first, was on top of Zimmerman, and beating him? She has an interesting point about saggy pants laws and curfew; in fact, if we removed everything about Zimmerman/Martin, this would be a really good essay.

But, by including it, I stop and think: "What else is she ignoring to make her argument?"

Likewise, here: "For more than two years, vocal pockets of conservative activists and politicians demanded proof of President Obama’s citizenship—as if a black man was trespassing simply by being elected to the Oval Office."

Completely ignores it was the Clinton camp that began that smear, not conservatives. She misstates the Arizona law as well (the person needed to have been stopped for a legal reason, not just because they "looked illegal.")

This piece of writing has a good soul, a great idea, dragged down by poor attention to detail. It could have really gone into a great discussion on race, but instead, checked some boxes and turned in.

Please don't say negative things about the child in the photograph. The subject of this post is the way adults -- including editors at The Nation -- use children to promote political causes that the child does not understand.

My cause here is the unique value of each individual and the high duty assumed by all who care for children and what that duty consists of.

I'm not really criticizing this child's parents, who are doing something that is way too conventional in our society, which I saw a lot of at the Wisconsin protests (click my "using children in politics" tag).

robinintn gets right to the point. I have no interest in arguing this case with anyone who has taken a position already. No one knows what actually happened.

Even the witnesses, what witnesses we have, aren't coherent or comprehensive.

Yet you have lovely people like Harris-Perry using words like "slaying".

I was on a jury where an eyewitness claimed to see the defendant strike the victim with a broken bottle. At night. From 100 feet away. In the middle of a riot. Oh, what a parade of fabulists we heard in that courtroom. We acquitted.

Karma is often derided as a New Age concept, but it isn't. It's very real, and the situation this child find himself in, through no effort of his own, will affect him (and influence the way he in turn affects others) for the rest of his life.

Until the willingness to perceive reality trumps the desires to be right, to be avenged or vindicated or to be victims or to be otherwise 'licensed' to give up civility, compassion and self-responsibility, the game will continue on and on, generation after generation.

This applied to all of us, religious and atheist alike, and not just those working themselves into a lather over the Trayvon incident.

Althouse, much like Harris-Perry milking this subject for all it's worth ie Andrew Breitbart. This story probably has legs if there's a trial, whereas others are quickly forgotten as conservatives and liberals continue to disagree on just about everything.

But there are more self-righteous conservatives here which makes it more entertaining!

>

So what have we learned. America still has a rather large racial divide as regards to society and politics. Shocking!

And Obama's 2008 election has made the situation worse in more ways than it has made it better. Again shocking!

@ Matthew This piece of writing has a good soul, a great idea, dragged down by poor attention to detail.

You are too kind.

"Poor attention to detail" is the trademark of the left. It's not the facts. It's not the detail .. it's the EMOTION of the moment that is truth.

The devil is in the details.

But in this it is a little boy carrying a sign because the USA is the most racist country In.The.World. and he is not safe wherever he goes, whoever he is, becasue he is Black in America and Don't.You.Forget.It.

Whatever happened -- and who really knows except Zimmerman and the now deceased Martin -- the ginned up breathless "facts" the news reports (my local ABC station repeated the Gutman tripe that Zimmerman had no signs of blood or damage when the cops brought him into the station. Duh. Read the police report. Plus the *news* from the mortician who embalmed Martin that he had no injuries on his hands. What the hey? That belongs in the prosecutor's file.

Are morticians ethically allowed to communicate about the state of bodies they process? Or did the family release this too?

It is information unexamined, unverified, in the public square. It is nearly impossible to take back information -- especially false information -- when it reaches the public ear through the mainstream media.

Maybe it is true? But what purpose does it serve except to inflame an already terrible situation. Why is the media allowing itself to corrupt the rule of law and feed racism?

The SPD are the ones banging their own heads on the sidewalk trying to get the job done. As someone remarked a couple days back, there is no way this can get into a courtroom now. If there was Justice needed for Trayvon Martin, these people (the racists who tell everyone they know that they *know* that Zimmerman shot a guy for being black) have all but guaranteed it will not come.

Now their version of justice is what? A drive by shooting of Zimmerman?

But there are more self-righteous conservatives here which makes it more entertaining!

No self-righteousness, but we do examine the facts, which makes Althouse definitely more entertaining than the Lefty hatefest at Kos. People using their brains are always more entertaining than ones in an echo chamber.

But I'd think after the bitch-slapping he and his alter egos received yesterday, bathtub swabbie would have crawled away to lick his wounds.

It's an exploitation of children to teach them that they are inevitably going to face overwhelming odds because of the hostility of the white majority. The transmission of this message is necessary to the success of those who make their living and support their egos as black "leaders." The lids get the message and begin to internalize the notion that they will be thwarted by powerful and hostile forces. Them, when adversity inevitably comes, it becomes easier for them to blame racism and prejudice rather than look at their own selves. Even if the source of the obstacle is actual racism, they are disadvantaged, because they are learning that it's hopeless to fight it.

Racism is on the wane in America, though people being people it will never entirely disappear. Melissa Harris-Perry managed to graduate from Wake Forest and Duke and teach at Princeton and Tulane. She would be enraged at the notion that she too is an abuser of children, but the net effect of teaching that everything is oppressive is exactly that.

On a related note: Ace has an interesting story in the sidebar showing how media outlets have altered Zimmerman's complexion in photos, making his skin dramatically lighter than it appeared in the original photo.

They're really going to the mat on this one. This is Obama's big break. If they can just incite a couple of race riots, and get a few black people killed by police, he'll be in like flint.

People can make a big deal about the hoodie thing all they want, but the truth is if you wear the wrong colors or the wrong hoodie certain parts of many cities, you are in trouble. If you are the wrong color in the wrong part of town, you are in trouble. And not with the police or the neighborhood watch.

Where do the people with the protesting three year old live- in the kind of neighborhood where you really can wear whatever you want whenever you want? Where does The Nation want that child to be safe, and where would that child be safe?

Not at all, as is proven by my pointing out it is conjecture, which I don't see being done by anyone on the left. They have mostly been calling Zimmerman an vigilante, murderer, and racist without any suggestion that they could be wrong. Is there any question whatsoever that he would be hanging from a tree right now if a lot of these people had their way. They already have a bounty, killzimmerman websites, and sending people to where they think he lives. Reprehensible. Show me the right wing equivalent. You can go back a couple decades to make it easier.

Poor little 3-year-old. The caption is worse: Steven Jonhson, 3, joins a "Justice for Trayvon Martin hoodie rally" on Tuesday, March 27, 2012 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes) Little Stevie didn't "join" the rally, he was brought there. Perhaps because Mom and Dad (or Mom or Dad) didn't have a babysitter. It's certainly not what a 3-year-old would prefer to be doing.

Jehmu Green today said that Martin should have hung up the phone with his girlfriend (it has been reported he was speaking with her for four minutes prior to his death) and called the police. But that as a young black man he was afraid to call the police.

I love how she's reading his mind. She is implying that a young black man can't get a fair shake from any police anywhere simply because he is a young black man, regardless of culpability in anything.

Does she not remember Jesse Jackson's famous quote about noticing a group of young men behind him on the street and being relieved when he saw that they were young white men?

That's what I was thinking when I saw the photo: Hundreds of thousands of women will see this photo, and 95% of them will be powerfully affected by it. I wonder how many votes for Obama in November could be traced to this one photo.

My kids were probably in fifth grade before I heard them refer to someone in racial terms. Before then, black kids were kids with dark skin, asians were the ones with different eyes. They asked why-are-they-different questions about asian eyes but never about skin color.

They attended a school that had students from dozens of other countries, so they were surrounded by 'other'.

@ Matthew This piece of writing has a good soul, a great idea, dragged down by poor attention to detail.

You are too kind.

"Poor attention to detail" is the trademark of the left. It's not the facts. It's not the detail .. it's the EMOTION of the moment that is truth.

The devil is in the details.

But in this it is a little boy carrying a sign because the USA is the most racist country In.The.World. and he is not safe wherever he goes, whoever he is, and Don't.You.Forget.It.

Whatever happened .. and who really knows except Zimmerman and the now deceased Martin ... the ginned up breathless "facts" the news reports (my local ABC station repeated the tripe that Zimmerman had no signs of blood or damage when the cops brought him into the station. Duh. Read the police report. Plus the *news* from the mortician who embalmed Martin that he had no injuries on his hands. What the hell? Is it ethical for a mortician to communicate the state of a body to the public? Or is this another "fact" from the family lawyer?)

The SPD are the ones banging their own heads on the sidewalk trying to get the job done. Maybe the DAs office is trying to gather all the evidence to rethink their decision? As someone remarked a couple days back, there is no way this can get into a courtroom. ANd if it does there are serious questions about the fairness of the trial already.

If there was Justice needed for Trayvon Martin, these people (the racists who tell everyone they know that they *know* that Zimmerman shot a guy for being black) have all but guaranteed it will not come.

Now their version of justice is what? A drive by shooting of Zimmerman?

"well, hes a Black kid, like you, who got in a fight for looking suspicious for being black wearing a hoodie. and the man shot him in the fight and he'd dead"

"mommy that's so sad"

"yes; like i told your older brother, my black sons have to be careful and respectful around people who mihth want to do us harm for bad reasons. But I'm kinda fed up with this, and we're going to protest martins death, ok"

He's learning to be prejudiced. That is the final outcome of the civil and human rights movements. In their selective indignation the activists are reaffirming people's concerns and fears that individual dignity will be bypassed in favor of class assignments. They have completely misunderstood or ignored MLK's insight and the positive progress that followed from enlightenment.

The people and cooperatives which inherited the positive perception of those movements have been corrupted by their accumulated wealth and power. The fundamental nature and vulnerability of human beings has not changed. We are all vulnerable to be corrupted by power, and there are others who are corrupt and seek power.

A little boy who looked like that zipped past me as if he was floating on air.

Then I realized he had on little roller skate shoes and he really knew how to lean on the rollers. His movement seemed much more brilliant than what you'd expect from a tiny kid like that. Surely he had just learned to walk. He turned around and came gliding back past me and then his dad came up from behind. The boy was floating, gliding, and skating circles around his dad as they both moved past me.

"So what have we learned. America still has a large racial divide as regards to society and politics. Shocking!"

Only to fools who fell for the "post-racial" crap Little Black Jesus peddled. Or anyone who thinks that America still needs to atone for the original sin of slavery. Over three thousand good men died at Gettysburg to wipe that stain clean.

If you were actually interested in the roots of this "racial divide," you'd look at the history of the post-Reconstruction South, the growth of the Klan, Plessy v Ferguson, the Great Society and the prescient warnings of Daniel Patrick Moynihan, to say nothing of the glorification of gangsta "culture" infesting so many cities.

But you're not interested. You're a troll.

"And Obama's 2008 election has made the situation worse in more ways than it has made it better."

And pray tell, who was encouraged to hope and believe that a stuttering, venal, racist ward heeler from Chicago would be the transformative post-racial figure we needed to have an honest conversation about race?

As well, why do the parents of Trayvon Martin rate the accolade that, were Obama to have a son, he would look like our no_limit_nigga, while the parents of James Cooper and James Kouzaris receive no words of sympathy or comfort?

"Again shocking!"

Only to willfully obtuse fools such as yourself, who confuse cynical snark with intelligence. Rather like your precious One, in fact.

I don't know if Zimmerman is guilty of manslaughter or not. But I do know I am disgusted by the race-mongers, the lynch mob attitude, the wanted posters and the tweeting of people's home addresses by self-righteous morons. But I am heartened to see former NAACP members and MLK relatives denouncing the usual race-peddlers. Maybe our post-racial president can lead from behind and do the same.

(As an aside- I find it interesting how our media created this new "white hispanic" race. I've never seen it on any forms that ask about race. My siblings and I , who are each ethnically both Puerto Rican and Irish, with skin tones among us ranging from dark brown to lily white, are given the option to choose between "white non-hispanic" and "hispanic". There was never any "white hispanic" category. A cynic might think this new terminology was part of pushing some agenda. )

The black community is no longer experiencing its a high level of political importance that it had a claim to since 1964 up until the day of Obama.

But they are so stuck on supporting Obama that the Dems have no need to do a thing for them. They have their Black President and that's all they get.

The Hispanics have been closing fast from the south as the South American countries wealth grows and they want their place in American politcs.

The hispanics say they are the ones now deserving of the most politically favored group.

The Trayvon Martin shooting has suddenly been burned into the black's minds as a black child who meant no harm and was treated the old Segregation Way by a vigilante. They project their new insecurity onto Trayvon's treatment.

Pardon these words, but as a dog lover will say and mean, "If you love me, then you must love my dog." That is the message about Travon and his hoodie.

And that is why the Child is used as a political prop. That child is the message!

But knee jerk white defenders of vigilante Zimmerman are kicking up a hornet's nest here for no good reason.

If we would treat Vigilante Zimmerman as the dumb jerk who shot the wrong person, which is the way he should be treated, then all will calm down. Everybody knows that a Justice system needs to arrest him and bond him out, seek an indictment, and then if necessary give him a fair trial by jury with witnesses, forensic evidence, and cross examination of witnesses.

To continue to give Hispanic Zimmerman an unearned most favored treatment, even denying a trial for him, is telling a very sensitive black community that if they want to defend their children, then they need to go get their own 9mm's and become vigilantes themselves.

This current nonsense defending Zimmerman from a trial by blowing smoke and engaging in PR campaigns of excuses for Zimmerman and blaming the dead boy is actually asking to popularize the Black Panthers' message that they alone are the security that is needed.

It erases 50 years of racial progress, and doing that is dumb beyond belief.

Gerlado is stupid, so let's ignore him. But, yeah. Martin could have responded reasonably instead of attacking. He may have, if he did respond reasonably and Zimmerman turns out to be the aggressor, we might have a real issue on our hands.

But... why does the author of this piece ignore the allegations that Martin struck first, was on top of Zimmerman, and beating him? She has an interesting point about saggy pants laws and curfew; in fact, if we removed everything about Zimmerman/Martin, this would be a really good essay.

According to reports (which may or may not be correct), Martin knew he was being followed. He's said to have told his girlfriend that. We don't know how Zimmerman approached Martin. Did Martin have reason to think he was being attacked? If you're walking alone in the night and someone get out of his car and approaches you, what are you likely to think?

The hard part about the allegations are that Martin is dead, so we only hear from one side of the confrontation. If he thought he was under attack, striking Zimmerman could be considered self-defense, something Martin had the same right to as anyone else. We may never know what happened between the time Zimmerman got out of his car and when witnesses say they saw Martin beating him. Martin is unable to tell his side of the story and Zimmerman's account may or may not be accurate. We simply don't know. Zimmerman was the alleged adult in the confrontation. IMO, he handled the situation very poorly.

The history of this has been written and the actual outcome will not change it or cause it to be revised. A white male stalks and kills a black child because the child is walking while black.

You can go round and round with your detective rants about black eyes and head lacerations and guilt or innocence of the white man Zimmerman but you are wasting your time and cluttering up cyberspace with useless jabber. The "facts" are irrelevant. The white Zimmerman may go to trial and he may be convicted or he may be set free but that will not change the Progressive truth which is that he stalked a black child and killed him because he was walking while black.

This is the prize that progressives have won for us. They should be proud indeed that they have kept alive a racism that had died in everyone's minds but theirs and the looniest rednecks afoot.

So what have we learned. America still has a rather large racial divide as regards to society and politics. Shocking!

What has probably escaped your notice, shiloh, is that it is the left that has perpetuated the racial divide, using it as a tool hold on to power. All conservatives are asking for is that we live up to Dr. King's fond hope that men may be judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin. If Zimmerman were black this would be page three local news. Zimmerman is being judged by the color of his skin, and it is liberals who are judging him, in most cases without a glimmer of factual information intruding on their judgment. Meanwhile the millionaire demagogues Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and Spike Lee feather their own beds at the expense of the American justice system. So tell me again how this is all the conservatives' fault?

"This current nonsense defending Zimmerman from a trial by blowing smoke and engaging in PR campaigns of excuses for Zimmerman and blaming the dead boy is actually asking to popularize the Black Panthers' message that they alone are the security that is needed."

Tradguy, I generally enjoy your posts, but you're completely off base here. Who is "defending Zimmerman from a trial?" He could be guilty as sin, for all anyone knows. If the DA believes this ought to go to trial, then it should. If he doesn't - whether through concerns that the jury pool has been so poisoned or that there is not enough evidence to bring against Zimmerman - well, since when has it become up to the vox populi to determine who should go to trial and who not?

And if you see excuses for Zimmerman and blame for Trayvon - I can assure you that neither I, nor I suspect, most of the Althouse commentariat want to exculpate Zimmerman if he is, indeed, guilty of anything more than a horrible error in judgement and a too-quick trigger finger.

What we want is for the disgusting race pimps like Jackson, Sharpton, Lee and Obama to just shut the hell up!They don't know the facts. I don't know the facts. You don't know the facts.

What we do know is that an elderly couple has been scared out of their home by the racemongering midget Spike Lee. We know that there is a "killzimmerman" webpage up which is a damned good incitement for someone to pull a Jared Loughner. We know that idiots such as the mother in this picture likely never heard of Martin or Zimmerman until the race war was stoked up.

We know - or, hell, I know, after wading through the sewer of last night's thread - that this case of a white hispanic (and, where, one wonders, has that racial classification been all these years?) slaughtering an innocent black child is tailor made to distract attention from Obama's multiple gaffes, missteps and outright malfeasance; since even his most faithful fellators are having trouble defending his record, what better way to prove their liberal bona fides than by defending poor, persecuted Trayvon?

I expect this kind of slack-jawed idiocy from Jeremy, Garage, Ritmo and Shiloh. I don't expect it from you.

Pasta...You and I don't have to see a 4 angles of color videotape of the incident before we can comment on the probabilities of what happened.

That job belongs to a Jury that will listen to actual cross examined witnesses, forensic experts, the available audio and video tapes we have all seen, Zimmerman's testimony and plea for understanding, and finally the opposing lawyer's statements of narrative. That is what we do.

Refusing to do that until a perfect proof of what happened can first be gleaned from carefully planted news stories would be very, very wrong.

Granting Robert Zimmerman's son some sort of diplomatic immunity, which is what has happened so far, is very, very wrong.

TMink said...It is my experience that kids under 18 in general could care less about race. As the race pimps are getting older, they need to gin up a few dying gasps of larceny before the jig is up.

==============It's not just the race pimps, it's the old guard liberals and progressive Jews running the media that have run with the horror of evil white on sweet innocent black "narrative" for almost 50 years. To exploit each incident they can cast as such in the name of "raising social awareness" of white Christian racism, white depredations of power.

These older members of the media are just as complicit in these Mau-mauing rituals as the black race pimps.

That sometimes the "narrative" blows up on them is of no mind, because the next Dabllou, the next Tawana, the next Mumia, the next Trayvon, Duke Lacrosse, the next nappy haired 'hos always promises the liberals and progressive jews the next bite at the old apple.

This whole set up is ultimately to service the status quo, rich/liberals white and black, not poor black people. Certainly not Trayvon Martin. Trayvon Martin was collateral damage.

I was listening to NPR in the car yesterday, I got sucked in listening to a piece ostensibly about the Trayvon Martin case. An older white man was "dialoguing" (gross, just talk, please) with his teenagery sounding mixed-race son. All quavery voiced with emotion he was telling his son that upon hearing of "Trayvon's case" his first instinct (despite both of them living in Berkeley) (of course) was to call his son, who looks black, and reassure himself that his black son was safe since his son looks black. Everything he said was to reassure himself and remind his son and the NPR listenership that he was one of the "good" whites who have intellectual and empirical knowledge of the unchanging plight of the oppressed and only ever act to protect them. The son was fully enjoying his inferior role, reasoning and reassuring sad dad, not a quaver in sight. Ugh.

Oh, sorry, I thought that someone had to be indicted for a jury to be so empowered; and that such an indictment hinged upon the existence of a certain critical amount of evidence indicating their guilt or complicity in some crime.

I had no idea it was based on how loudly mobs of people were screaming for their head on a pole.

But then again, I'm not a lawyer; you're the expert. And you are always going on about the beauty and majesty of the law and its practice. I bet that head on a pole is right purty from just the right angle.

Trad Guy is just doing what Moderates and RINO's always do, play the "only adult in the room" card, also known as the "Reasonable Conservative" card.

Basically, every-time the left does something stupid and needs to criticized, then somehow conservatives must ALSO be criticized so the "reasonable conservative" or "the only adult in the room" can maintain his status.

Ann Althouse wrote:I'm trying to raise consciousness about the exploitation of children.

This is not news, at least to me. The American Left have always exploited children. Children are tactic and the object. Everything is for the children, especially the immediate and permanent aggregation of power in the hands of (adult) leftist elites. THE WORKER as an exploited class to be protected and led by a revolutionary vanguard has never gained much traction in America; that kind of classical Marxist screed is only voiced by the shabby left, the unfashionable kind with thick Brooklyn accents and sideburns who stand on street corners singing off key from the Little Red Songbook to nobody. The intellectual Left, the ones who keep MSM newshounds as household pets, have long known that THE CHILDREN are the vulnerable class in need of their patronage, and that any kind of curtailment of liberty, any kind of desecration of the Constitution, any kind of mob violence, any kind of tyrannical assault on individual autonomy, any kind of race hustling, any kind of anti-Semitic agitation is justified in defense of the CHILDREN. It's FOR THE CHILDREN is the penultimate yelp, coming just before THINK OF THE CHILDREN.

The Trayvon Martin shooting has suddenly been burned into the black's minds as a black child who meant no harm and was treated the old Segregation Way by a vigilante. They project their new insecurity onto Trayvon's treatment.

Those poor black folks can't handle facts? Is THAT your argument?

That is certainly treating them like adults.

But knee jerk white defenders of vigilante Zimmerman are kicking up a hornet's nest here for no good reason.

So, "Lynch mobs are bad" is now inciting a lynch mob.

To continue to give Hispanic Zimmerman an unearned most favored treatment, even denying a trial for him, is telling a very sensitive black community that if they want to defend their children, then they need to go get their own 9mm's and become vigilantes themselves.

There isn't enough evidence to convict and a jury that isn't already tainted is impossible.

But, hey, we should just sacrifice somebody to appease the mob. That often works out great.

And, given that over 90% of blacks are killed by other blacks --- shouldn't they be armed anyway?

Granting Robert Zimmerman's son some sort of diplomatic immunity, which is what has happened so far, is very, very wrong

How wrong would it be to have a thoroughly biased jury be able to make a verdict on him?

As an aside- I find it interesting how our media created this new "white hispanic" race. I've never seen it on any forms that ask about race. My siblings and I , who are each ethnically both Puerto Rican and Irish, with skin tones among us ranging from dark brown to lily white, are given the option to choose between "white non-hispanic" and "hispanic". There was never any "white hispanic" category. A cynic might think this new terminology was part of pushing some agenda.

I bet Obama will soon be called white-black. He's as white as Zimmerman after all.

And, silly, you're only Hispanic if you are supportive of a Progressive narrative. Otherwise, you're a cracka.

My point has been that we should not let our fight with the Divider-in-Chief Obama turn us into fighting against use of our own legal system. We should ignore the Sharptons and Jacksons, turn the Courts lose and watch how well our Judges and Juries perform.

A Public Hearing is the essence of the value offered to us by our legal system. It wins public support, it lets emotional anger find a release, and 90% of the time it comes to a good outcome that everyone accepts. Then we can go back to living our lives and feel secure in a God fearing Nation.

The Hatfields and the MCCoys were probably right. But we are better than them.

I want to talk about the 450 million rounds of military grade bullets recently ordered by Homeland Security. They are planning in advance for a mega civil disorder following their intentional crashing the dollar's value.

We will need racial harmony more than we need to take revenge on Sharpton and Jackson so much that we lose our minds.

A Public Hearing is the essence of the value offered to us by our legal system. It wins public support, it lets emotional anger find a release, and 90% of the time it comes to a good outcome that everyone accepts. Then we can go back to living our lives and feel secure in a God fearing Nation.

...unless Zimmerman was to be found not guilty.

Nobody expects less than riots if a trial is held and he is acquitted.

Shouldn't someone directing a project on "gender" have their degree in English, not Political Science? To use the PC substitution for "sex" immediately raises my antennae about the purpose of their endeavors.

As for Trayvon, he is in many ways a victim. Because of the astoundingly high rate of crimes committed by black males aged 15 to 25, he is immediately labeled subconsciously as a threat, especially if he has done nothing to help people think otherwise. This is not a protocol for being black in public, this is just screaming out that "I am not a threat." Do lawyers defend their clients before a judge in t-shirts and shorts? There are places that dressing as a gangsta wannabe is not appropriate, such as in someone else's neighborhood late at night. The race baiters have latched onto profiling as a shield, but it is not a rational position. That thinking created the disaster in our airports. Why do police set up sobriety checkpoints on New Years Eve and not on Wednesdays in October?

I have many African American patients whom I wish I could have as relatives. Most of them try to stay away from older teens in hoodies. Everybody is afraid to say that someone else's youth culture is destructive. When a 21 year old has four kids, no man and no education, they don't stand a chance. There must be a point where this isn't OK. Making academic success like leprosy is not OK. It doesn't make someone a sellout to join the society at large, get educated, have a job and family. Until this changes, no one will see the next Jayvon walking down the street and just say "Hi".

Likewise, here: "For more than two years, vocal pockets of conservative activists and politicians demanded proof of President Obama’s citizenship—as if a black man was trespassing simply by being elected to the Oval Office."

What is humorous is that there is more evidence than ever that there are questions about Obama's Constitutional ability to be President, and, indeed, about much of his life. Sheriff Joe constituted a posse maybe a year ago, to look into these allegations, and his conclusion, with the evidence at hand, is that his background is shaky enough that he couldn't work for Maricopa County, AZ.

The debate was supposed to have been put to rest, with the release of Obama's birth certificate. But the posse's forensic experts have declared it to be a fake. Just as worrisome, numerous government records have apparently disappeared, right around when records concerning Obama should have been present. If nothing else, the apparent cleansing of these government records should, itself, be very worrisome.

And, no one has explained his selective service records, nor his Connecticut social security number. Nor, exactly when he was in Indonesia, etc. Or, his grades, test scores, etc.

Also, of some interest, is the recently sworn testimony of a USPS worker that he remembers being told by the Ayers family that they were supporting a black foreign student, and when the postman finally met a young black college student at the Ayers house, he believes that it was Barack Obama. (These were the parents of Bill Ayers, the domestic terrorist, though the postman also remembers meeting the younger Ayers there). Also, supposedly, one of the biggest clients of the law firm that Michelle Obama worked for, and her husband interned or something for was the company that the elder Ayers ran.

Think about it for a minute. If this is true, then Obama's claim to have not really have known the younger Ayers nor his wife, and that the only connection there was proximity, is not just misdirection and a partial truth, but a blatant lie, with the Ayers family having supported Obama through college, and maybe law school, and maybe even getting him the job at the firm where he met his wife.

I still don't know how much of this is true, and how much of it is paranoia. But, I do fault the MSM trying to bury any questions about Obama's past.

ie the only time conservative bloggers say something positive re: Dems, African/Americans etc. is when said conservative agrees w/what said Dem, racial minority is saying.

Just out of curiosity, why would you say something positive about someone that's disagreeing with you? Unless it's pathetic attempts and faux-civility much the same as we get in high-level political debates, "My esteemed opponent is a good man, but..."

This isn't to say there's all kinds of common ground to be had (there are and we do find it more often than the media would like everyone to believe. Fluffy human interest never leads). But the way you're shaping your argument struck me as odd.

Ummm it was Obama saying Trayvon Martin made him think he could be his son because of skin color, the usual race hustlers stirring up shit(Jackson, Sharpton), Spike Lee tweeting an elderly couple's address in a vain hope of vigilante shooting of Zimmerman and the entire MSM enraging in a 24/7 stream of race-baiting. But as usual, in your Alinsky fashion you TRY to turn it around as though it were conservatives who are creating this crisis. Guess what shiloh, you aren't fooling anyone. Maybe you try with elementary school students, they are still squishy in the head and might be receptive.

Both Zimmerman and Trayvon have a history of behaving stupidly. Take away their halos and their horns, and you have two stupid young men in a stupid confrontation that escalated stupidly. If both men were of the same race, the salient fact would be their stupidity and not their race.....If Zimmerman is tried by a white jury, he's innocent. Tried by blacks, he's guilty. The OJ verdict is as much a part of our nation's history as jim crow laws--although it does not factor into the Nation's history.....It doesn't seem that Hispanics are publicly embracing Zimmerman. Home is where when you go there they have to take you in. So maybe Zimmerman really is white.

...just doing what Moderates and RINO's always do, play the "only adult in the room" card, also known as the "Reasonable Conservative" card. Basically, every-time the left does something stupid and needs to criticized, then somehow conservatives must ALSO be criticized so the "reasonable conservative" or "the only adult in the room" can maintain his status.

Its called "pulling an O'Reilly" after the FOX talking head who perfected it. He's always selling some conservative issue down the river so he can appear "reasonable".

I have said this before, but I think that it bears repeating. This is mostly, I think, designed to gin up enthusiasm in the Black community for the reelection of Barack Obama.

But, Zimmerman is just as Hispanic as Obama is Black. And, this cannot help him with the Hispanics in this country. Rather, it could end up hurting him substantially. After all, the Blacks are going to vote for Obama in probably as large a percentage as before - so the only issue there is turnout. But, Hispanics are a big swing constituency, backing GW Bush, but then swinging in large numbers behind Obama 3 1/2 hears ago. If the Republican nominee can get anywhere near the percentage of Hispanics that Bush did, then Obama is likely to lose.

Not only that though, the more this goes on, and the more that the MSM, along with Democratic activist groups and politicians push this, the worse it will be with the Reagan Democrats - lower middle class Whites. He lost this demographic to Hillary!, but did much better in the general election. Pictures of the decedent in his wife-beater undershirt, or the fact that he was wearing a hoodie, and so many of his supporters are using such as an identification device, is not going to help him in the long run. It is just going to say to them that this guy was not the type of guy who you want roaming through your neighborhood, presumably looking for trouble.

Yes, that is racist, but the attacks on Zimmerman are far worse. Keep in mind that there is far more black on white crime these days than white on black crime, and that blacks are far more likely to die from violence at the hands of other blacks, than at the hands of whites.

A culture of violence and crime is being celebrated by a lot of the black community (as well as some of the rest of the country). The hoodie is a symbol of this. And, as such, I think that it will rebound to Obama's disadvantage that he and a lot of prominent Democrats have jumped in on the side of this culture of violence and crime.

Compounding this, Zimmerman was working, apparently, as part of a Neighborhood Watch when this happened. He can thus be seen as working to protect his community from that sort of culture of violence and crime. And, Martin can be seen, at least by some, as just the sort of person who has to be questioned by either the police or the residents there to explain why he appears to have been roaming around there, appearing to be up to no good. This is what people who take responsibility do for themselves and their communities - they protect it when the police cannot. And, that lower-middle class community is the place where this is the most important.

Which gets me back to my original point - that this appears to me to be just one more unforced error on the part of the Obama reelection campaign.

I don't recall how trotting out pregnant Bristol endeared Palin to the conservative crowd.

Correct me if I am wrong here, but didn't Bristol deliver before her mother was nominated to be VP? Up until she, herself, delivered her fifth child, the claim had been that Bristol's child was really her mother's. After that, that claim just looked ludicrous, given the realities of human gestation, not that some die hards (I am thinking of Andrew Sullivan here) never seemed to have given it up.

Since children are such powerful symbols of potential and the future, it is understandable that they will be used in advertising, whether it commercial or political. We were excited 22 years ago when our daughter was chosen as the "face" on diabetes in children, even though she did not have diabetes. Putting a face on a problem does make people think more about it. I don't feel this causes any harm to the child involved. Merely a photo. hardly the same situation as getting them to be actors, which does harm them. In many ways, my daughter's association with that diabetes center helped her achieve her goal of going to medical school. She could trace her involvement with the school and add credence to her declarations of affinity for the institution. Maybe the kid in the Trayvon inspired photo will become a lawyer.

If both men were of the same race, the salient fact would be their stupidity and not their race.....If Zimmerman is tried by a white jury, he's innocent. Tried by blacks, he's guilty. The OJ verdict is as much a part of our nation's history as jim crow laws--although it does not factor into the Nation's history.....It doesn't seem that Hispanics are publicly embracing Zimmerman. Home is where when you go there they have to take you in. So maybe Zimmerman really is white.

This OJ connection is interesting, given that Marcia Clarke is being quoted in Ann's other Zimmerman/Martin thread today. Yes, the woman who lost the OJ trial.

The story I heard soon after, from a good friend of the DA, is that the black community, through its leaders, forced the DA's office to prosecute in an area of LA with a large black population, as contrasted to where OJ actually lived, with was fairly white and exclusive. They knew, at that time, that the trial was likely lost, and figured that the only way they had a chance was if they could either get the sex thing going (through Marcia Clarke) or defuse the racial angle (with her co-counsel). But, neither of these attorneys were considered first string, and were just put on the case because of their sex and race. Otherwise, the DA's office would have had a much more experienced and talented team trying such a high profile capital case.

Let me suggest though that even if the Hispanic community is not rallying to the defense of Zimmerman, as the black community is for Martin, I think that it would be much more problematic at trial. I don't know the demographic composition of the local jury pool where the death occurred, but state wide, the demographics favor Zimmerman by a wide margin.

Tradguy, I think you and I are talking past each other. Here's my take, before I'm gone for the weekend:

If the DA believes there is sufficient evidence to warrant a trial, I would want one. I suspect Zimmerman would, too. What neither I nor he want, however, is this ginned-up lynch mob baying for his blood.

Shut up, everyone and let the legal system work it out. That means close your yap, Al, Jesse, Spike, Urkel, you and me.

Leftists don't need facts. they have their story and if the facts line up, then great. if not, doesn't matter. the story is "fake, but accurate" as it was in Rathergate.

And they always react the same way. The truth is slander. Martin was beating Zimmerman (according to Zimmerman) so it's slander. there are no other points of view - only theirs. Facts that contradict them are slander, libel, lies, hate, racism. The only thing they know, the only thing that matters to them is that Martin was black and Zimmerman wasn't. Only blacks are allowed to kill other blacks.

The leftists may be this and that but is there anything to suggest that there would have been anything but this injustice to Trayvon disappearing without them? I suppose ultimately that "muddled," O'Reilly's term, Stand Your Gun Law is going to go whatever justice is for Zimmerman. To me the Florida Republican establishment which produced it has more splainin to do than any other group.

I enjoyed the cute picture of a dad taking his 5 year old son to a Santorum victory party*. Seemed like just the dad including the boy in American political life. The picture in the Nation has the aspect of kind of being a harmonic reflecting the grief over loss of youth and becoming. Heretofore I haven't questioned pictures on the Diary of Ann Frank either.

The hate expressed, myself included in the sense I quite enjoy a song with the lyric "Just send me to Hell or Salt Lake City, it would be about the same to me."

"It would be about the same to me."

Media is no friend to the Mormons, any more so than any other religion except one.

Culture in one way is kind, because Trey P. and Matt S. are good people with a brilliant sense of decency showcased via rarely-crude filthiness. It's quite a trick. The story/rumor Saddam watched their South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut is delicious.

But aside from that, when I hear Mormons mentioned it isn't with care for how Mormons will feel.

The lack of empathy is cringe-worthy, here now and everywhere always. An injustice anywhere is a threat.

My hope is once we change the POTUS to a Mormon, America will experience more unity, decency, love, and Godliness.

TraVon, IS GUILTY NOT of being african america, But for attacking george. This country allows those who can pass a gun test, to obtain a gun for protection when their LIFE IS IN DANGER. Trayvon endangered George's life. Period. Shut the Frig up, sick of this BS, the stupid rallys and nonsense, If anone knew sanford, like a resident of the area does. Then they would know its a bad neighborhood, not safe, and YES has a lot of gangs, its the truth, and yes some african american gangs! Big deal, stop whining people. I live here too, and he had a right to defend his LIFE.

It's tragic a young man is dead but it's tragic whenever anyone dies..black..white..hispanic etc.How is it when black's kidnap a white couple..sever the guy's penis and worse,turns on the girlfriend in which i couldn't continue reading as too gruesome,and then set them on fire for the sole reason that they were white..well..where is the outrage? My understanding is eyewitnesses state trayvon assaulted zimmerman..was reaching for gun when it went off. There was quite a struggle before that gun went off. Zimmerman was not trigger happy. He was crying for help! Why would travone who was on top be crying for help? And why did a friend of trayvon write a message for a memorial'i know you whooped his a..s..s.before you died.Why did trayvon's parent's seal their son's school record's..what is it they didn't want us to know? We have been told to expect race riot's this summer..this incident will be used to set them off.An Obama agenda.Why in the world is the media helping egg this on? Why ignore the blackpanther's creed which is 'kill all the whites'. I am sick of race issues. Every word ..every issue is turned into race issues.